Support NeoGAF

[thetrin]

Westwood Studios presents Blade Runner. 'nuff said.

What a ****ing fantastic game. I need to play through that again.

 

[Pikelet]

didnt futurama use some form of bullshit dark matter to fuel there spaceship?

 

[Uncle]

didnt futurama use some form of bullshit dark matter to fuel there spaceship?

Actually the shit was Nibbler's.

 

[Yoboman]

http://gsuserisgangsta.ytmnd.com/

 

[Pikelet]

Actually the shit was Nibbler's.

:lol :lol

 

[Faizal]

Starflight

The Wing Commander games

 

[oracrest]

Hmm. Hard sci-fi is a tough one. While I only played the demo way back when, The Dig seemed like it went for a more serious tone to it's writing and mood

Kinda tough to pick. I don't think the industry takes itself all that seriously yet to provide a whole lot of hard sci-fi titles. Hell, even movies dont offer a whole lot

 

[tahrikmili]

I played and finished The Dig all by myself (except the stupid marking puzzle in the stupid cave I think) and it was pretty neat

Spoiler

until the turkey aliens appeared. After that I just couldn't take the game seriously anymore.

 

[thetrin]

I played and finished The Dig all by myself (except the stupid marking puzzle in the stupid cave I think) and it was pretty neat

Spoiler

until the turkey aliens appeared. After that I just couldn't take the game seriously anymore.

Pretty much everything I thought of The Dig. Still a fantastic game.

 

[Frenck]

I haven't played Halo 2 but in Halo 1 Cortana says she has a Covenant translation module.

Yes, but Cortana isn't with the Chief the whole game, she is in the Battle Network of the High Charity during 2 levels, and the aliens still speak english.

 

[Gattsu25]

Heh, can't think of a single hard SF game, either...it's not exactly a sibgenre that interests me unlest it's heavily sociopolitical


edit: HALO 's translation plot hole isn't the only thing keeping it from being Hard SF, anyway

 

[Frenck]

But it comes a lot closer to being hard sci-fi than most games, it is the only game I can think of that portrays space so realistic. I'm only talking about the first game, because the second one is much closer to George Lucas than to Iain M. Banks.

There are many problems, like gravity on the Autumn, in the books the Autumn has spinning sections, in the game there is no explanation for the gravity. The energy shield is another problem, how is the Chief able to hold and fire a weapon if there is a thick energy shield around his hands? It's explained in the books that his shield is very thin at his hands and foot and that the Chief sometimes slides across the floor because of the weight of the armor and the shielding.

But no game is as well thought out as a really good hard sci-fi novel, Halo stands out because it tries to be hard sci-fi unlike most other sci-fi games.

EDIT:

I forgot about Killzone, Guerilla really tried to be as close to reality as possible with the game. Although there are flaws like the aircraft where passengers and pilots sit in the open, completely unprotected.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tvOkuvUJGF4

 

[Zenith]

I've thought of a possible one. Nexus: the Jupiter Incident. at the beginning the ships have the spinning artificial-G sections, it takes months to make a trip to Jupiter and your only weapons are large-bore cannons, point defense lasers and nuclear missiles.

 

[sammy]

I feel that different departments in the industry have too much control, for a hard sci-fi game to keep its soul entirely through development -----

You could have the most baddass scientific writer to back your universe, but the art-department could turn aliens into googly anthropomorphic McFarlaine furries at any moment and completely obliterate the experience. If the experience is discovery and isolation, design could implement a neon-glowing crate puzzle at any time jeopardizing the pace. Or in some cases, a narrative/story could be completely out of place in an otherwise 'documentary' experience.
A development team doesn't seem to have a person with as much command as a writer, or film director - that can completely mold the entertainment they want ..... you mostly see hard science-fiction in literature, simply because it's from the telling of a single educated author with realism as a goal and no compromize over that goal.

a truly hard sci-fi game would stand out so well, especially in the current mix of so much low brow science-fantasy. I would think that it would make its statement, and do well for itself.
I personally would like to see a hard sci-fi game revolutionize the edutainment, and sort of give science nerds their own Gran-Tourismo ------ I'd love to see it completely remove itself from humans/characters and focus entirely on research and discovery --- something that would make the most seasoned scientists weep tears of joy